Month September 2013

Passion + Adversity = Success? ~Since adversity in life is a given, our success and happiness depend on our ability not just to cope with it but to actually grow because of it. Professionally, we have the greatest potential to grow when we challenge ourselves in our field just beyond our comfort zone. This means risking fear, embarrassment, errors, or even full-blown failure. And it means gaining new skills and abilities that contribute to our greater mastery and success in the future. Because grit is a combination of persistence and passion, adversity plays a significant role in helping us develop both of those qualities. via Greater Good Science Center, published September 9, 2013.

Montessori Classrooms: Observations through a Design Lens ~ Just as a designer sets out to create problem-solving products in human interaction, Dr. Montessori engaged in a life-long mission to understand and resolve the challenges in childhood learning. Drawing on years of observation and insight, her work was some of the first to acknowledge the inherent dignity of children. Instead of forcing children into an adult environment, she rather sought to defend children’s miraculous abilities through refinement of a myriad of designs. These included beginning-to-end learning tools in language, math, science, geography and practical life. Through a process of observation, design, testing and rapid refinement, she eventually arrived at a comprehensive learning environment. via Core77, published September 9, 2013.

When Memorization Gets in the Way of Learning ~ What separates memorization from learning is a sense of meaning. When you memorize a fact, it’s arbitrary, interchangeable–it makes no difference to you whether sine of π/2 is one, zero, or a million. But when you learn a fact, it’s bound to others by a web of logic. It could be no other way. via The Atlantic, published September 9, 2013.

Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught? ~Once a small corner of education theory, S.E.L. has gained traction in recent years, driven in part by concerns over school violence, bullying and teen suicide. But while prevention programs tend to focus on a single problem, the goal of social-emotional learning is grander: to instill a deep psychological intelligence that will help children regulate their emotions. via New York Times, published September 11, 2013.

Why Keep A Diary? ~ What a calendar cannot do, and a journal can, is help you reflect on the big picture of your life and your creative work—where it is, what it means, and what direction you want it to take. via 99u, published September 13, 2013.

Everyday Quotes Replaced With The Word ‘Design’ To Highlight Its Importance ~ To India-based Ambar Bhusari, who designs for a living, design is one of the most important things in the world and play a valuable role in our lives everyday. As a way to emphasize this, he came up with quotes. Highlighted in posters, these quotes are real idioms replaced with the word “design”, to give it a different meaning that’s relevant to design. via Design Taxi, published September 11, 2013.

WATCH

Ken Robinson on Passion ~ Ken Robinson believes that everyone is born with extraordinary capability. So what happens to all that talent as we bump through life, getting by, but never realizing our true potential? We need to find that magic spot where our natural talent meets our personal passion. This means we need to know ourselves better. Whilst we content ourselves with doing what we’re competent at, but don’t truly love, we’ll never excel. And, according to Ken, finding purpose in our work is essentially knowing who we really are. via The School of Life.

John Cleese’s Philosophy of Creativity: Creating Oases for Childlike Play ~ The trick, Cleese says, is in making the space to engage in childlike play without relying on childish spontaneity—he recommends scheduling time to be creative, giving oneself a “starting time and a finish time” and thereby setting “boundaries of space, boundaries of time.” via Open Culture, published September 13, 2013.

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Why video games may be good for you ~ “Game research has tended to get sucked down into a black hole of people yelling at each other, saying either games are good or games are bad,” says Gentile, who studies the effects of video games on physiology and behaviour. “I think we are starting to move beyond this inappropriately simplistic idea to see games can be powerful teachers that we can harness.” via BBC Future, published August 26, 2013.

Debunking the Genius Myth ~ Unlike sports or music, where students can see others practicing, much of schoolwork practice happens at home, builds slowly over time, and goes unseen. “You don’t see the work others are doing, so it looks like it never happened.” via MindShift, published August 30, 2013.

Cognitive Science Meets Pre-Algebra ~ Interleaving has become an especially hot area of interest among researchers. It mixes distinct but related problems or ideas — long division, say, and multiplying fractions — in daily homework assignments. A growing number of cognitive scientists now believe that this cocktail-shaker approach could improve students’ comprehension of a wide array of scientific concepts, whether chemical bonds, parallel evolution, the properties of elementary particles or pre-algebra. via New York Times, published September 2, 2013

Is School Enough? Documentary Film Delves In ~ “Connected learning suggests that there should be a learning ecology, and that what we do outside of school should be connected in very strong ways to what we do inside of school,” said Jenkins. “School has to respond to the informal learning that’s taking place at home and in the community.” via MindShift, published September 3, 2013.

Abraham Maslow and the pyramid that beguiled business ~ “He really was ground-breaking in his thinking,” Lachman says. “He was saying that you weren’t acting on the basis of these uncontrollable, unconscious desires. Your behaviour was not just influenced by external rewards and reinforcement, but there were these internal needs and motivations.” via BBC, published August 31, 2013.

Why Kitchens are Better Than Conference Rooms ~ Just this morning, I was reminded how food has the power to bring people together. As I sat down to write this post, a delicious aroma came wafting through the studio. I closed my laptop to investigate. Nearing the kitchen, I saw a large group gathered around a simmering pot of homemade soup. Everyone had the same instinct I did—taking a much-needed break to joke around and get reenergized. After a few minutes, the group broke up and returned to work, creative juices flowing, excited for the meal we would soon enjoy together. via Tim Brown on LinkedIn, published September 3, 2013.

Design Your Class Like A Video Game ~ While there is no single way “school is,” there are general patterns that reward compliance, thoroughness and punctuality while stifling learner-centeredness, abstraction, and play. What would happen if a student was required to unlock the next assignment in a project-based learning environment? via Teach Thought, published September 4, 2013.

Study: To The Human Brain, Me Is We ~ A new study from University of Virginia researchers supports a finding that’s been gaining science-fueled momentum in recent years: the human brain is wired to connect with others so strongly that it experiences what they experience as if it’s happening to us. via Forbes, published August 22, 2013.

Graphic Design Tool Offers Skills To The Masses ~ Canva is a new online tool that aims to lower the barrier of entry to graphic design, allowing anyone (from professional designers to novices) to design projects including business cards, presentations, blog graphics and posters, with an easy-to-use interface and a vast library of fonts and images. The tool is not intended to replace designers, or professional design software such as Adobe Creative Suite. Rather, the platform allows users who don’t have the resources or sufficient need to purchase design software, to create more sophisticated designs than they would otherwise be able to. via PSFK, published September 2, 2013.

Grown-Up Tinker Toys Let You Build Your Own Everything ~ Turning his back on the IKEA model, designer David Graas invented a building kit called “Everything But the Manual.” It is, in essence, Tinker Toys for adults. It isn’t just for fun, though – this set is meant to build furniture, creative accents, and anything you can imagine. It consists of 260 oak sticks, each 415 mm long and 26 mm square, full of evenly-spaced holes. via Dornob Design, published September 3, 2013.

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In this brilliantly funny video from Sesame Street, Cookie Monster attempts to explain the concept of self-regulation and its importance, while sharing some of his strategies for deferring gratification when faced with a pile of delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Sesame Street launches its 44th season on September 16th, 2013 with a new self-regulation and executive function curriculum.